JJ Virgin's Sugar Impact Diet

Introduction

HOW LOWERING YOUR SUGAR IMPACT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

When I wrote The Virgin Diet, I was on a mission. I had to help people with what I discovered: food intolerances were sabotaging their health and holding their weight hostage. You can be doing everything right, even eating healthy diet foods, and still not lose a pound. Eliminating seven foods unlocked the key to fast weight loss in just 3 weeks. It was so incredible to see people get their lives back—weight came off fast, and the fatigue, bloating, and aches that came with food intolerance disappeared. So people told their family and friends. I was amazed at the movement it started. By now it's helped hundreds of thousands of people finally lose the weight and feel better fast.

And as I watched people go through the program, I realized that one food was the biggest needle mover of them all: sugar. Reducing sugar is the one thing that can jump-start your weight loss or crack the code on breaking through a plateau better than any other, especially if you're not dealing with other intolerances. But—and this is a big but—not all sugar is created equal!

All of the sugar diets out there drive me crazy because they totally miss the point. You already know sugar is bad for you! Hardly anyone is gobbling up straight sugar anymore—consumption of table sugar is at an all-time low.

When many of my clients come to me, they're frustrated and ready to give up because they're already depriving themselves of candy, dessert, and a spoonful of sugar in their coffee. They're sweetening their oatmeal with honey, they're eating low-fat yogurt with fruit, they're fighting their hunger with low-calorie snack bars during the day, and they're living on salads, diet drinks, and "healthy" frozen meals. When a sugar craving hits and they slip, they beat themselves up for their lack of willpower. But after all the healthy low-calorie, low-fat, sugar-free eating, they end up with the same symptoms they'd get if they were eating a ton of sugar—weight gain, cravings, mood and energy swings, health issues like inflammation and insulin resistance, and maybe even diabetes. Sound familiar? So what the heck is going on?

NOT ALL SUGARS ARE CREATED EQUAL

These healthy diets are packed with hidden sugars, and these sugars are not harmless. I had to come up with a revolutionary new way to look at sugar to allow even more people to finally lose that extra weight and reclaim their health—and that's exactly what I've done. So let me shout this from the mountaintop—it's the impact of sugar that matters. You don't have to eliminate sugar completely, but you need to choose your sugars wisely. When you understand Sugar Impact, you'll know why I've declared sugar—especially sneaky sugars, which I'll describe in this book—public enemy No. 1. The high Sugar Impact of the seven foods I'm going to share with you is the single biggest factor when it comes to fatigue, obesity, diabetes, and a slew of other diseases, including cancer.

Sneaky sugars hide in places you'd never suspect—whole foods, diet foods, packaged fruit, drinks, dressings… even sugar substitutes. Even the most health-conscious among us struggle to know everywhere they hide or how to avoid them. It can feel incredibly daunting. But I've found a way to make it easy. Once I give you the tools to drop these seven high Sugar Impact foods, you can cut out all of the hidden sugars that have been sneaking tons of sugar into your diet, causing you to gain weight, crave sugar, and feel terrible.

If you had success with the Virgin Diet but you're still looking to lose those last stubborn pounds—you've found your answer. You'll have even more success on the Sugar Impact Diet. It will change your life! People who've followed this program had incredible results—most lost 10 pounds in just 2 weeks! And they reversed inflammation and bloating, eliminated symptoms we're all told to believe are the normal signs of aging, and feel better than they have in years.

All that's waiting for you, too. You'll break free from the Sugar Impact of seven sneaky sugars that are making you weight-loss resistant—and you'll be surprised at how easy it is. I'll show you how to eliminate high and medium Sugar Impact foods—the biggest sources of hidden sugars holding your health and your waistline hostage—from seven food groups: grains; roots; packaged fruit; low and no-fat dairy and diet foods; sugary sauces, dressings, and condiments; sweet drinks; sweeteners, and added sugar. Just by dropping the high and medium Sugar Impact foods, you'll reset and retrain your taste buds—and, like my clients, you can lose up to 10 pounds in just 2 weeks.

TRACK YOUR IMPACT

It will blow your mind when you see how much sugar is sneaking into your diet—mountains of it, even in things you would swear have no added sugar. The average American eats about 22 teaspoons of sugar every day. Sugar is a chameleon—it has many different forms, hides under lots of different names, and slips into foods you'd never expect. There are more than 50 names for sugar! Studies have shown that the rising rate of obesity in kids today is coming from the foods they're eating at home, not the junk and sweets they're sneaking around eating after school. So you can't just shrug it off—you have to become a sugar sleuth!

But don't sweat it—I'm here to help. You'll find a cheat sheet in this book that lists different names for sugar and where it hides (see Sugar Hides In Plain Sight, here). I'll make sure you're armed and ready, because sugar is the number one topic of questions, concerns, and confusion I get from people, by far. What if it's natural? What about honey? What can I substitute? What if I can't live without it? Help!

And don't think you're better off if you're eating the calorie-free stuff. Artificial sweeteners are just the wolf in sheep's clothing. They let you think you beat the system by eating something sweet without the calories, but your body isn't in on the trick. It sets its sugar metabolism machinery in motion and screams for glucose, which means you'll probably just end up eating more.

So if you're like my clients—eating healthy but you just can't seem to lose weight (maybe you're even gaining weight), you've come to the right place. Lowering your Sugar Impact jump-starts fast fat loss, breaks through those weight-loss brick walls, reduces inflammation, balances hormones and mood, improves sleep, and reverses declining health more than any other change to diet or lifestyle.

There's even more good news—the Sugar Impact Diet isn't about eliminating sugar altogether; it's about eating the right sugar. The program I've created and outlined in this book is unlike any other. It lays out a step-by-step process to wean you off the foods with the highest and most damaging sugars—those with the highest Sugar Impact—so that you can lose weight, drop fat, and improve your health without feeling deprived. Learning how to swap good sugars for bad sugars for just 2 weeks will heal your body and transform your life forever.

By the end of the program, you'll not only have lost weight and reclaimed your life, you'll be armed with information and lots of great alternatives to satisfy your sweet cravings. I've built this program specifically to address the world we live in, to give you the tools and the strength to avoid the sugars that are hurting you. And if you have a sweet tooth (and yes, some people are born to crave sugar more than others), don't worry—you aren't doomed. There are ways to work with your genetics so that a lifetime in the grip of sugar isn't your fate. You'll change your taste buds and your sensitivity to sugar, so passing up cupcakes and ice cream will be a breeze, not a teeth-gnashing exercise in willpower.

Together, we're going to change how you think about sugar, so you can be clear about how to make the best choices for your weight, energy, mood, and life.

THE EVOLUTION OF HIDDEN SUGARS

We're genetically hardwired to want food that's sweet; our ancestors used to gorge on ripe summer fruit and the lucky honey find to "winter up" for the cold months ahead. Of course, back then, and even until fairly recently, sugar was never available in the forms or amounts it is today.

Living in a world that stresses us out constantly doesn't help. You're always on the run, work is crazy, you're shuttling kids everywhere, and the last person to get taken care of is you. Meals are whatever is convenient and fast.

Even though you don't have much time to think about what you're eating, guess who does? Food companies. They're busy, too, making sure that when you reach for that low-fat cookie, you keep coming back for more. Little by little, they're slipping more sugar into packaged foods, including diet foods, to keep up with the low-fat craze, and as food gets sweeter and sweeter, you want it even more. Yes, sugar is an addiction. When you eat a lot of sugar, you train your body to need it constantly, but getting rid of it is easier than you think.

NEED OR WANT?

Did you know that we can't live without protein, fat, and water, but we can live without carbs? I know! Shocking, because I bet there are a lot of days during the week when you say to yourself, I just could not live without carbs. Well, that's what I used to say. No sourdough bread? I mean, come on! But yep, we can survive just fine on protein, fat, and water, since our bodies can actually create glucose on their own. It's just who wants to? Not me.

Besides, even though we can live without carbs, if we cut them out entirely we'll feel lousy and stress our bodies in the bargain. So let's do this right.

With the Sugar Impact Diet, you'll identify the right types and amounts of carbohydrates so that you always feel great and the weight keeps coming off. I want your body to get the food it needs to fuel and restore you, without putting you in a metabolic spin cycle. Foods with high Sugar Impact—specifically, foods with high amounts of a specific type of sugar called fructose—encourage your body to store fat without making you feel full. Talk about a bad combination! Throughout this book, I'll explain how to spot and avoid high Sugar Impact foods, and I'll teach you delicious low Sugar Impact swaps so that you can avoid the sugar roller coaster without feeling deprived. This is not about "living without." It's about the power of being informed to make good choices, knowing where there's wiggle room and how to step away from bad choices—the harmful, high Sugar Impact ones. You'll break through the sugar confusion to find the life that's waiting for you—you'll be leaner, more energetic, and healthier than you ever thought possible!

SUGAR IMPACT TO THE RESCUE!

No other program looks at sugar as comprehensively, strategically, or innovatively as the Sugar Impact Diet does, and certainly no other comes close when it comes to ensuring your success.

Other programs set you up to fail by either focusing on only a single aspect of sugar measurement, like the glycemic index, or by asking you to take drastic and unrealistic measures, like giving up all carbs—right now! Well, how has that worked for you so far? You're sent on a roller-coaster ride—pumped up, then hungry and crashing—and still craving the sugar that sent you on the ride in the first place. That seems a little heartless of them to do to you, and more than a little unnecessary, don't you think? You can't go from a high-sugar diet to a low-sugar diet overnight without serious consequences.

So let me set you up for the win. I'll give you the tools to evaluate where you're getting the most sugar in your diet and guide you through the transition from high Sugar Impact foods to low Sugar Impact foods. At the same time, you'll be retraining your taste buds to key back into the subtle sweetness of nature's treats.

I've developed the Sugar Impact Scale, which rates a food according to the amount of sugar in it and the effect it has on your body. It takes into account a food's fructose levels, nutrient density, fiber, and glycemic load. The Sugar Impact Scale, like everything else in my program, is simple and easy to understand. Sugars and carbohydrates are assessed as having a high, medium, or Low Sugar Impact. Think of them this way:

• High Sugar Impact—stop!
• Medium Sugar Impact—proceed with caution
• Low Sugar Impact—go!

The Sugar Impact Diet will help you avoid the highest Sugar Impact foods (and their negative health effects) by giving you simple swaps—nutritious, tasty trades with lower Sugar Impact. You'll probably like them even better!

RESET YOUR SWEET TOOTH—IN JUST 2 WEEKS!

In The Virgin Diet, I asked readers to give up seven foods for 3 weeks. If the Virgin Diet proved you can do anything for 3 weeks, 2 weeks will be a cinch! So prepare to be wowed. The simple three-step Sugar Impact Diet will deliver amazing results in the blink of an eye.

The three cycles will help you taper your Sugar Impact and transition you from high to medium to low Sugar Impact foods—slowly. You're not going cold turkey! Ever. I know that's conventional wisdom in certain diet circles, but how's that worked for you so far? Exactly. There are a few things I can guarantee going cold turkey will do for you, and losing weight isn't one of them. Instead, you'll be shaky, irritable, lethargic, starving, and craving sugar—not the outcome we're after.

First, you'll identify what sugars are undermining your weight and health. Where are the sugar land mines in your day? How much sugar are you really eating?

Then you'll shift from burning sugar to burning fat—which is just as good as it sounds! (More on this in Chapter 1.) I'll be with you every step of the way and I've put together a ton of support and strategies for navigating any rough spots—including Sugar-Withdrawal Strategies (see here), Sugar-Attack Survival Strategies (see here), Speed-Healing Techniques (see here). You can also see my recommended Supportive Supplements at http://sugarimpact.com/resources. You're also going to read exciting stories and see the "before" and "after" photos of people who've already felt the impact and had incredible results. You'll be as amazed as I am. Best of all, you're next!

When you complete this program once, you're good to go. Even so, I encourage you to redo Cycles 1 and 2 once a year, to take stock and take aim, especially if you have a new goal.

I know that the true test of a diet isn't just how much you lose when you're on it, but how successfully you can stay at your goal weight for good. Most programs yank the sugar and then leave you to your own devices—but too often that means you end up right back where you started. If you don't have a maintenance plan, you're bound to fail, and then you have to start again. When you have to do a diet over and over, it's fair to say it didn't work so well, isn't it?

Sugar is all around us. I'm going to help you make peace with it and understand it—especially the impact it's having on your weight and health. You have the power. You can do this! Plus, when you know what to eat and what swaps to make, you'll even learn to enjoy sugar again, without the guilt.

So if you're where I was, and where the thousands of men and women I've helped were, there's no need to be overwhelmed with despair. You can break free from sugar and lose 10 pounds in just 2 weeks!